Brenchen wrote:That sounds good anyone else can voucher for this as well?

Sorbolene is good stuff. Free of perfumes and most chemical nasties, I use it on my face in winter for dry skin. I remember reading that it is as effective as any of the expensive moisturisers, and non-irritant. Never thought of using it on the other end. It should help prevent chaffing and saddle sores.... on the backside that is.

Yeah, I use it for my hands - I have a dry skin condition that flares up into major irritation at times. So always have QV creme handy and decided to try it as chamois creme.

Some generic brands of sorbolene I've tried are a bit runny, but Amcal chemists sell a 500ml tub for about $7 which has a good consistency, and at that price there is no reason to be stingy with it.

Since it is water-based and non-greasy, it washes out easily. QV creme is also available in tubes and is available almost anywhere there is a pharmacy. Both these attributes are important to me while I'm on tour.

Oddly, many chamois cremes contain lanolin (wool grease) which is a known skin irritant to people who suffer allergies.

Paraderm always has a place in my touring first aid kit. In NZ it saved me from going crazy with itching sandfly bites.

On this topic, what is the general view on shaving your perineum as prevention tool? When I had a bad saddle sore, my doctor prescribed antibiotics and an antiseptic cream and also suggested that shaving would help. I assumed it make it worse as ingrown hairs would be more likely? Any thoughts or experience here?

I too suffered the same, it turned out that my saddle height was causing me to hip pivot and the soft skin in the groin rubbed and became sore and inflammed, so bad I took up running till they lessoned in size.During this whole time I have been using liberal amounts of SUDOCREM, and although I was sore it was generally managable. I have since dropped the saddle and am putting weight more on the sit bones, however the knees are now playing up! Thats another thread I have used the hot towel method, paw paw balm and a good old squeeze and surgical spirits, they are now all but gone and I feel they are going in the the right direction, AWAY.Good luck..

Desmo wrote:On this topic, what is the general view on shaving your perineum as prevention tool? When I had a bad saddle sore, my doctor prescribed antibiotics and an antiseptic cream and also suggested that shaving would help. I assumed it make it worse as ingrown hairs would be more likely? Any thoughts or experience here?

Ingrown hairs could be a problem if you shave. I would suggest trimming the hair in the area rather than shaving.

As a prevention, you can't go past zinc and castor oil cream - cheap and readily available in any supermarket or pharmacy, just look in the baby section.

Or you could wax and then use an ingrown hair treatment for the first five days.

No soap wash is good, the wash without the soap that is.

I get an ingrown hair in the crack of my butt frequently and usually requires surgery, I could have the whole thing removed, they cut down very deep and the healing time can be like 6-8 weeks, so I'm trying lazer hair removal first, it's only a small area but could be worthwhile.